Surprises
by Shnuffles
Summary: Surprises are a good thing most of the time, like acing a History of Magic essay. But when a suprise shakes the wizarding world to its core? Nine times out of ten, that's not going to be a good surprise. rated T just in case.


Author's note:

So, this story is the same one I had up before. However, I changed up a few things and edited a few more. I also combined the first two chapters into one. I'm sure there are plenty of grammatical mistakes left in the story and I'm sure my commas are all in the wrong place but hopefully you can look past that and enjoy the story. Please let me know what you think and if you notice any of the mistakes send me a pm and I'll try to fix them.

Side notes about the story: Teddy lived with the Potters who adopted him once he turned five and James is the one that looks the most like Harry.

Disclaimer: I am not J.K Rowling and do not own any part of the Harry Potter series.

* * *

It never ceased to amaze him how much dust accumulated on desks and bookshelves over the summer months. Harry sneezed and sent his glasses slipping down to the tip of his nose. He sighed and pushed the round frames up for what seemed like the hundredth time that day.

Ginny had already sent him three reminders to be home before lunch, always with little remarks about how she'd finished preparing her classroom last week. Harry scowled and dropped to his knees in order to fish a piece of parchment out from under a bookshelf. He unfolded it and smoothed out the crinkles until it was smooth enough to read.

_Hey Bletchley, get your new broom yet?_  
**Yeah, why?**  
_'Cause if you did Gryffindor's got no chance._  
**They've got no chance anyways**_  
True. Neither Potter can fly and the Weasley twins are a joke._

Harry crumpled the paper again and tossed it in the bin. Harry sighed as he thought back to the defeat Gryffindor had suffered against Slytherin in last year's Quidditch final. James had been sick and Fred and Roxanne were both in detention so the team had been three players short.

He cast one last look around his room and decided that it was as clean as it would ever be. He walked up the small set of stairs into his office and pulled his cloak off the chair. He grabbed a pinch of powder from the pot he kept above the fireplace and, silently thanking Professor McGonagall for connecting the school to the flu-network for the summer, threw the powder into the flames. He stepped into the now green fire and said clearly, "Potter residence, Godric's Hollow."

He emerged a few seconds later in his living room covered in soot. He was hastily trying to brush the ash and dust from his clothes when he was hit in the head with a slimy, toad shaped object. He lurched back and waved his hands a bit to regain his balance. Once he was no longer in danger of falling over he reached up and pealed a dead toad off of his head. As he was looking at the toad in his hands with a mixture of wonder and disgust his oldest son, James, appeared in the doorway.

James gulped and walked slowly into the room with a guilty expression. "Err, sorry about that Dad. I was aiming for Li…." He was cut off as the toad hit him directly in the face.

Harry clasped his hands loudly and said, "You need to work on your aim, son." Underneath the mess of toad James grinned.

Harry's daughter chose that moment to appear. Lily, who had been hiding behind a couch, popped up and yelled, "Dad, James has been throwing frogs at me!"

James rolled his eyes, "It's a toad Lil."

Lily was about to reply angrily when Albus came running into the room with a couple of letters clasped in his fist. "Hey James, look what I've got!" He yelled, "Who's Sara, James? Huh?"

James, who was no longer grinning, wiped the remaining toad slime off his face and leapt at his brother. "Give me those Albus!"

Right before he reached his brother, who instead of turning around and running, was bracing himself for impact, he was bounced backward. He landed flat on his back on the living room rug. James sat up gingerly and rubbed his back. He turned to look up at his father and saw that Harry had his wand in one hand and the letters in the other. James gulped.

He was saved by his mother who came into the room saying, "Boys, what's going on? Has your father… Oh, hello dear!" Harry grinned and shoved the letters into his pocket. He stepped over James to reach his wife and pulled her into a kiss. The boys both made retching noises and Lily shrieked, "Eeeeeeew."

Ginny blushed, Harry grinned, James yelled, "get a room," and Lily ran into the hall.

Ginny looked up at Harry and said, a little breathlessly, "You're late."

Harry tried to look apologetic as he asked, "Forgive me?"

Ginny pretended to consider his request before answering, "Just this once." She turned to her sons, both of whom had resumed making retching noises. "If you two are sick then perhaps your sister and I should go to Diagon Alley by ourselves and pick up your things for you? I'm sure your Uncle George will miss seeing you in his shop but I'll tell him you were too ill to come." The noises immediately stopped and the boys shook their heads vigorously.

"Good," Ginny said, "Go get your lists and your sister then meet us outside." The boys ran off as if eager to prove to their mother how healthy they were. Ginny turned back to Harry and said, "Oh, I've told Teddy we would meet him in the Leaky Cauldron for drinks at around one."

Harry smiled and said, "That sounds wonderful!"

"I think he's bringing his new girlfriend with him. It will be nice to meet her won't it?"

Harry was just about to reply when James, who evidently had already come back down the stairs yelled, "GIRLFRIEND?" He ran into the room. "Since when does Teddy have a girlfriend? Who'd date him?"

Ginny glanced over at Harry and said in a low voice, "Perhaps we should leave him at home."

James heard this and said hurriedly, "I mean, oh great! Teddy's new girlfriend. I can't wait to meet her. Of course someone would date Teddy. He's such a great guy."

Harry rolled his eyes. Soon the other two Potter children came into view. Lily grabbed Ginny's hand and the boys grabbed Harry's arm. With a quick turn all five Potters vanished.

It was a matter of seconds before the Potter gang reappeared in a building built specifically for apparition into Diagon alley. Ginny lead the way and walked out into the morning sunshine. The family paused once they were truly in Diagon Alley and Harry checked his watch.

"Ginny," he said, "We should get going if we want to get any of the shopping done before we go and meet Teddy and, um, what was his girlfriend's name?"

"Evelyn," Ginny replied, "and yes, you're right. I suppose we had better take them all to Madame Malkin's first. Lily needs her new robes and the boys have too much ankle showing at the bottom of theirs and they're getting very worn."

Harry nodded and they all set off down the alley toward the robe shop. They'd barely been walking a minute when the door to Eylops opened and two very pretty girls walked out. James blushed a deep pink when he caught the eye of the older of the two. . She was a Gryffindor, slim with olive skin and long black hair that fell down her back in slight waves. The other, who was a bit younger than the first, had brown eyes hidden behind rectangular glasses and medium length brown hair that framed her face. Albus recognized her as a fourth year Slytherin.

James, still rather pink, walked across the way to where the two girls were standing. Albus was confused but he followed behind. James took a deep breath before a shy smile crept onto his face. "Hi, Sara."

Albus' jaw dropped. He looked from James to the girl, back to James and back to the girl. He opened and shut his mouth a few times before regaining his "cool." "Sooooo," he said, "Sara! How lovely to finally meet the sender of all those mysterious letters. I can't tell you how simply…." He was cut off by a shove from James, a very hard shove from James.

Sara smiled at the two brothers and turned her attention on James. "So, are you shopping for school stuff?" She mentally scolded herself for not being able to come up with anything interesting to say.

James cleared his throat awkwardly and replied, "Err, yeah. We are."

"Me too," she said, "Scarlet and I just finished." She indicated the fourth year Slytherin. "Um would you like to join us for a drink or something?"

James and Albus both completely ignored the Slytherin. James frowned and answered, "We can't. Sorry. Mum's got her 'let's get everything done as fast as possible' attitude on and…" Scarlet interrupted him.

"Maybe I'm mistaken but isn't the proper response when introduced to someone new to acknowledge them and introduce yourself?" She glared at the two Gryffindor boys. "Perhaps we could try this again? Hi, I'm Scarlet Laurel. You are?"

Sara tried not to laugh at the flustered looks on both boy's faces as James said, "Er, I'm James and this is Albus."

"Well, that was a little better," Scarlet said rolling her eyes. She turned to Sara and added, "I'd better be going. Sorry, Mum and Dad are expecting me to be home soon."

"Alright." Sara gave her friend a hug. "I'll see you tomorrow on the train."

After Scarlet had left Sara turned back to the boys and said, "You were rather rude you know."

James looked abashed but Albus on the other hand was staring after Scarlet with a mixture of confusion and distaste. "Why on earth were you hanging out with a Slytherin?" James glared at his little brother.

"Why not?" asked Sara in a cool voice. Albus opened and shut his mouth a few times but couldn't seem to think of anything to say other than, "She's a Slytherin."

Sara rolled her eyes before giving James a hug. "I'll see you later. I should probably be going to." She walked down the alley and turned to give James a last wave before disappearing into a shop.

James turned on his brother, "Nice going, Al."

"What?" Al asked indignantly. "It was a valid question."

James shook his head and smacked Albus in the back of the head before hurrying to catch up to his parents. The two boys reached them just as they were entering Madame Malkin's.

"Where'd you two go?" asked Lily in her best nosy little sister voice, "Mum was just about to come looking for you."

"None of your business," James replied, the back of his neck turning a bit pink. He glared at Albus as if daring him to say anything about a certain Gryffindor girl. Albus just smiled and walked into the shop.

Madame Malkin appeared from behind a rack of robes and smiled at the Potters. "Hello! What can I do for you today?"

"We need new school robes for all three of them." Ginny replied gesturing at the kids, "The boys are growing like weeds and its Lily's first year at Hogwarts. Madame Malkin smiled again and wandered over to a rack of plain black robes with the standard Hogwarts crest.

"Lily is it?" Madame Malkin asked. She thumbed through the rack and explained, "All of your robes will be plain black with the Hogwarts crest for now. Once you're sorted the Head of House will change the inside lining color of the robe and replace the crest for you. Aha, here we are. Try this one on, dear." She pulled out a robe and tossed it to Lily.

Lily took the robe and slipped it on over her muggle clothes. It was really big on her. James and Albus chuckled when Lily tried to walk. The hem dragged the floor and the sleeves hung down a few inches over her hands. Lily blushed and shrugged out of the robe.

"Never mind, try this size." This continued with Lily until they'd found a size that fit her then it was the boys turn. Madame Malkin turned to Ginny and asked, "About one size up from last year?" Ginny nodded and the boys were soon laden with three sets of new Gryffindor robes. The Potters paid for the clothes, thanked Madame Malkin and headed out back into the road.

"Well, that took a bit longer than I'd expected," Ginny said looking at her watch, "We'd better hurry on to the leaky cauldron. The children had to jog to keep up as she hurried on.

James spotted Teddy as soon as they'd entered. Teddy smiled and waved at his family. He was tall with brown eyes and pale skin. His hair was how he usually had it, shaggy, messy, and blue. When the Potters reached the table Teddy stood up and gave Ginny a hug. "Hi Mum."

"Hi Teddy," she replied, grinning up at him. "Are you alright? Have you been eating enough? What about your house, is everything working right?"

Teddy laughed, "Yes Mum, everything's fine." He reached over and gave Harry a hug too. "Hi Dad, all ready for the new term?"

Harry chuckled and replied, "As ready as I'll ever be." The Potters found seats and Teddy turned to the pretty girl sitting beside him. "Everyone, this is Evelyn Greene." Evelyn smiled, a bit uncomfortable with being thrust into the center of attention. Nodding to each member of his family he continued, "Evelyn, this is Mum, Dad, James, Albus, and Lily."

James and Albus stared at Evelyn. Lily gave her a shy little wave. "Wonderful to meet you, dear," Ginny said with a big smile. "Teddy's told us all about you. Well, he's told Harry and me all about you. He's smart enough not to talk about anything but Quidditch with the boys."

Evelyn laughed. "So," James began, ignoring the warning glare Teddy was giving him, "How on earth did Teddy convince you to date him? Is he threatening you? Are you being drugged with a love potion? Have you…"

Teddy interrupted him. "Exhibit one as to why I don't talk about my love life when they are within earshot. Sorry about that Evelyn."

She smiled, "That's alright."

Teddy looked back over at Harry and Ginny and said apologetically, "I'm really sorry but we can't stay. Evelyn has to go get ready for a new job and I got called into the office today. We just wanted to stay long enough to see you all."

Ginny frowned, "Well, I wish you two could stay longer but if you've got to go you've got to go." She stood to give them both hugs. "Be sure to come home for Christmas. Evelyn you're welcome to come to!"

They all exchanged good byes and waved as Evelyn and Teddy went back out into Diagon Alley.

Ginny sighed before saying, "We'd better be going too. We don't really have time to grab a drink and there's no reason to if Teddy can't stay. Come on." She stood and walked out the door.

The other four followed and right before they left Harry leaned down and whispered to James, "You'd better hope your Mum forgets what you said when it's time for her to grade your Charms homework."

James looked up at his father, "She wouldn't do that would she? She can't mark me lower for stuff that happens before school! Can she?"

Harry shrugged. "I don't know but you ought to be careful just in case."

James gulped and resolved that he would do his best to stay out of trouble for the rest of the day. Well, as long as Albus didn't bother him.


End file.
